County raises dust control permit fees

Washington County Engineer David Patterson made a presentation about the county’s dust control policy during the county board of supervisors weekly meeting Tuesday.

Patterson said he had a three- to five-minute presentation on the history of dust control. He explained that hundreds of county residents like to control the dust from gravel roads near their homes.

“Dust control is an albatross for our department,” Patterson said. “It’s something that’s a challenge for us to work with. It’s very time consuming in what it requires to prepare for it and administer it.”

Several years ago, he said that the county had 20-30 residents who applied dust control. That number rose to 336 applications in 2006. Last summer, 250 residents used dust control.

“It becomes a real challenge because we’re trying to maintain the roads and keep them free of potholes and keep rock on them,” Patterson said.

The engineer said that his department spends two weeks in the spring and two weeks in the fall dealing with the areas where dust control is applied.

“It creates a natural conflict between us, the dust control providers and the landowners,” Patterson said.

For the full story, see the March 9 edition of The Washington Evening Journal